Refresh lends people with poor credit money, so they can build good credit. You have called yourself a “socially-redeeming for-profit company.” Tell me a little about your mission and how you differentiate yourself in the Canadian lending ecosystem.

We solve a very real gap in the marketplace today, providing financial tools to Canadians who don’t have access to all available forms of credit. Being pushed down the credit ladder isn’t a great experience - being told “no”.

We believe that by providing a great, affordable product solutions (cash secured loans and our new secured credit card) alongside a great client experience helps clients really value our brand over time during their financial journey.

At a recent Senate hearing we discussed that the estimated size of the Canadian non-prime consumer credit market is $165 billion and that over 7 million Canadians have credit scores that are too low to qualify for traditional financing.

Our cash secured loan & secured credit card provides consumers with two tools that they can use to establish credit. Both report as instalment and revolving (respectively) tradelines that report repayment history on the consumer’s credit profile.

Refresh takes a more proactive, personalized role in the client experience ensuring that they are educated and well positioned to progress and gain access to credit products if they require. One of the ways we do this is through a financial training platform called Refresh f.i.t